Mac for the Hall?

I wouldn't say baseball is over, we've just hit its most boring month is all. And so with the recent election of Bruce Sutter to the hall of fame, it makes me turn my attention to 2007, when McGwire will be eligible for the first time. And for the first time baseball writers and fans will be confronted head on with how to treat the steroid era in baseball's history.

Let's get a couple things out of the way. If the steroid scandal doesn't erupt McGwire is an easy first ballot choice, slamdunk. He shares the stage next summer with Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken as a member of what would be the most impressive HOF class in recent memory. But the steroid scandal did break. Even still, I don't think anyone's opinion changed in any material way until the congressional hearings in march. At that point, our lasting vision of McGwire ceased to be the towering moonshots and and huggin sammy and his son. Now what we think of is the one unfortunate phrase, "I'm not here to talk about the past"

I don't know what to think. I don't know if i'd vote Mac into the hall. I'm not even sure about how i feel about steroids in baseball personally. I don't see them as any greater evil than loading up a baseball with vaseline, or using those red eye contacts that make you see the seams of the ball better while your cheating. In the latter case, thats definitely a physically enhancement, and im curious why there hasn't been more of an outcry over them. I'm also not sure how anyone can make the distinction between bonds, and Mac. We've decided that Mac is a juiced up steroid freak but bonds gets in because he had a Hall of Fame before he took steroids? What you mean is before he got big, because i don't have any clue when Bonds started doing them, and I don't know about mcgwire either. And for that matter, how are you going to leave sammy sosa out just because "he got big". Oh yeah we're supposed to "trust our eyes". well of the guys like alex sanchez, ryan franklin, matt lawton, rafael palmeiro and the like, i haven't seen any of those "big guys" get caught. So maybe we shouldn't trust our eyes at all.

anyway, here's what the case against Mac boils down to: he probably took an illegal substance for which baseball had no penalties for, for an undetermined amount of time that helped him perform at an as of yet indeterminable higher level of athleticism, and it may or may not have caused long term health effects that he will have to deal with. That and he's a coward for what he did in front of congress. Is that enough to keep him out of the hall? Truth be told, im not sure. I'm not sure mcgwire owes us an explanation either. Maybe he doesn't even owe us the truth. But id sure like to hear it, before I'd have to make that decision. Mac probably isn't getting in in '07 and if the only reason is because we need more time to distance ourselves from the time than he played, I can understand that. Maybe we need more than the five year waiting period in this case. If he doesn't get in because hes getting punished, im not sure that's right.

Either way though, the '07 HOF voting is going to be much more compelling than this years.